Silvio O. Conte

Silvio Ottavio Conte (November 9, 1921 – February 8, 1991) was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives for 16 terms, representing the 1st Congressional District of Massachusetts from January 3, 1959, until his death in Bethesda, Maryland in 1991. He strongly supported legislation to protect the environment, as well as federal funding of medical and scientific research.

He supported federal funding of research, and secured funding for a polymer research center at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. As he was a passionate advocate for federal funded health research through the National Institutes of Health, the NIH continues to honor him today with grants for neurological research awarded in his name.[3]

Conte never lost an election; he was the only member of Congress who did not have an opponent in the 1964 election. He is somewhat famous for wearing a pig mask in a 1983 press conference, as a protest against pork barrel spending.

In 1966, along with three Republican Senators and four other Republican Representatives, Conte signed a telegram sent to Georgia Governor Carl E. Sanders regarding the Georgia legislature's refusal to seat the recently elected Julian Bond in their state House of Representatives. This refusal, said the telegram, was "a dangerous attack on representative government. None of us agree with Mr. Bond's views on the Vietnam War; in fact we strongly repudiate these views. But unless otherwise determined by a court of law, which the Georgia Legislature is not, he is entitled to express them."[4]

A member of the Republican Party, Conte was part of what was then its liberal northern tradition.[5] Conte voted against U.S. involvement in the 1991 Gulf War. On social issues, Conte's record was more Conservative, also reflecting his Roman Catholic faith; for instance, he was opposed to abortion.[6] He encouraged a generation of young activists whom he hired as staff. For instance, Betty Boothroyd worked for him as a legislative assistant between 1960 and 1962; she later became Speaker of the British House of Commons.

Congressman Conte died at age 69 of prostate cancer in Bethesda, Maryland on February 8, 1991. He is buried in St. Joseph's Cemetery in his home town of Pittsfield. More than 5,000 of his constituents waited in line in 5 °F (−15 °C) weather to attend his wake at tiny All Souls Church, his childhood church, in Pittsfield.